Broken Hearts
by OptimisticLady
Summary: Alice Carter and Eric Northman's relationship is seemingly damaged beyond repair. What would it take for Alice to listen to Eric? How far would Pam go to get Eric to confess his feelings for the human woman? Separating from each other may not have been the best solution... Eric/OC. Second in a series.
1. Heal

The pillow still smelled of the soap Eric had used in the shower, and his ever present ocean-like scent, and Alice clung to it, not having the heart to get out of bed and try and go about normally. She suddenly felt empty, knowing that she wouldn't be going to Fangtasia tonight, to keep going through things with Eric and occasionally flirting with Pam.

She didn't have the capacity to cry anymore. All her tears were used up. At least, that was what Alice thought until Maria came knocking on the bedroom door to tell her it was gone midday and that she had cooked bacon. Alice only clung to the pillow tighter and the French woman came into the room, sitting down on the end of the bed.

"You can't hole yourself up in here until he comes back," she said to her.

"I can try," Alice muttered in bitter response, tears coming to her eyes. Again. Maria sighed.

"Moping isn't going to help."

"I know... I know... It's just so weird – I'm not gonna see him again for a while, and it was my choice to do that, but I still feel... awful. I've not really done anything like this before. Well–" Alice did a half shrug. "I have. But that was with someone who was _actually_ my ex-boyfriend. I think I was too nice to Eric," she added on in a whisper. Maria was shaking her head.

"No. You weren't _too nice._ You were just being you. I don't even know Eric, but I think that somewhere, he did appreciate you being yourself – being nice to him, compassionate... all the rest of it."

"He doesn't even recognise his own emotions – he's had them turned off for the past, oh, I don't know, a thousand years, give or take."

The brunette's eyes widened.

"He's over a thousand years old?"

"Hmm mm."

"That's _insane..._ but he's still a baby compared to what Russell was."

"How old was he?" Alice was genuinely interested.

"Three thousand years old."

There was a moment of silence as Alice contemplated the immense age of the vampire who had so cruelly detained her, and she glanced down at her arm, while allowing her tears to drip free.

"That's um.. wow."

"Yep."

"Kinda shows _why_ he thinks he can be so powerful, I guess..."

"I guess it does..." Maria paused for a second or two. "Come and join Alcide and me while we have lunch."

Alice sat up, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Alcide's here?"

"Ahh, does somebody like the wolf?" Maria teased her, highly amused.

"No. I just didn't expect him to visit so soon."

"Well, he _does_ live here in Shreveport."

"That I didn't know," Alice hopped off the bed in order to get her hairbrush. "You said there was bacon?" she asked, combing through her now-frizzy locks. They wouldn't go entirely tame, but she could make them look more presentable.

"Bacon sandwiches."

"I generally don't keep bread in the house because I _hate_ it." Alice put down the brush, turning to look at Maria in confusion.

"We went out and got some while you were sleeping." Maria shrugged, standing up and making her way out of the room, tugging the red-head in her wake. "You can just have the bacon if you want."

"That was my intention."

Maria let out a light chuckle as she then dragged Alice through the living room and into the kitchen, where Alcide was just finishing up at the stove. It was then that Alice realised how hungry she actually was, not having eaten for several days. Alcide looked over his shoulder at them.

"Hey Red," he greeted her as Maria shoved her into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, going to find some plates.

"'Red' has a name, you know."

He shrugged, coming over to the table as Maria did with the plates and the bread.

"It's more fun annoying you, I've realised." He shot her a handsome smile, and she merely shook her head. She raised an eyebrow as she caught sight of the fact that he had _fried_ the bacon, and not _grilled _it. "What?" he asked her, when she looked at the bacon sceptically.

"It's fried."

"So?"

"That's grim."

"You're so English," Maria commented. "You wanted bacon. Now eat some. Grilled or not, youve not had anything for days."

Alice nodded – still not feeling too thrilled about the idea of fried bacon, but took some of what Alcide offered to her. While her companions set about making their bacon sandwiches, Alice went and got a fork out of one of the drawers so she could actually eat. As she sat back down again, she surveyed the two of them, unable to help but notice how oddly domestic this situation was. Three friends sitting down to lunch together.

It were as if the events of the past week hadn't happened at all. That was what irked and bothered her the most.

Some small talk started up, but Alice didn't really participate. The strangest thing about this was that Alcide – of all the people – was here. She may have given him the open offer of dropping by any time he wanted to, but the fact he came the day after she had suggested it was... odd. She must have been looking at Alcide in a funny way, because he caught her eye and sifted uncomfortably.

After their feeble lunch, Maria noticed that there was some growing tension between the two of them and promptly left them alone in the least subtle of manors. There was a moment where neither of them knew what to say, but then eventually Alice spoke up.

"Alcide... why are you here?" she asked him, fiddling with the hem of her dress like she always did when she felt a little nervous. He sighed.

"I was asked t'bring something t'you," he eventually replied.

"So this _wasn't_ a nice, social visit?"

"It kinda was, kinda wasn't." He rose from the chair and beckoned for her to follow him. "Social and business? Can those two even overlap?"

"I dunno," Alice said as she followed him out of her house and to his van.

Alcide opened the back double doors and then pulled out a relatively large, rectangular, pale green box, handing it to Alice, who looked at it in confusion.

"What is this?"

"A gift. Not from me, though." He slammed the doors shut and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"Who from?"

"Who d'you think?"

Alice's lips drew into a thin line and she nodded.

"Why?"

"He thought you'd like it." Alcide considered something for a moment. "Y'know last night? When I told you to get less of an asshole boyfriend?" He shifted uncomfortably. "I just sort of _thought_ he was your boyfriend, going by the way y'were looking at him. He's not, is he?"

"No. Furthest thing from it, really... I don't know, it was complicated to start with and then it was complicated to end with." She moved the box so that she could hold it more easily. "I barely even know you and you made a good enough deduction about _that_ messed up situation."

"Was it always that messed up?"

"Truthfully? No. No it wasn't." And how Alice wished it _never_ had been messed up in the end.

"You loved him?"

"Still do," she sighed.

"I know how you feel," he admitted shyly.

"Ex-girlfriend?"

"Ex-fiancee, actually."

"Sorry about that." She gave him a more sympathetic look, before glancing down at the box. "Well, I should head back inside."

"It's cool. I need to head off now, so... see you soon, Red. I'll drop by for a proper social visit next time." Alcide grinned at her, and Alice couldn't help but grin back. He may have look rough around the edges with the scruffy hair, beard and grating voice, but Alcide was sweet. Why couldn't she have met him first?

"Yeah. That would be nice. Like I said last night, it'll give Maria some good company."

"I like her."

"Oh, I think you're gonna feel more than just that if you keep coming 'round here," Alice chuckled, throwing a wink in his direction. "Bye Alcide." She turned on her heel and started making her way back inside, as Alcide went to the driver's side of his van and got in.

Kicking the door closed with her toe, Alice entered the living room and sat down on the sofa, placing the box next to her. She eyed it curiously for a moment, before finally lifting the lid of it and dropping it to the floor. Her eyes widened at what was inside, and she was suddenly a mixture of angry and upset again. Perhaps even falling in love all over again, because this 'gift' that Eric had sent her, was not the most appropriate thing to have done when he _knew_ she didn't want to think about it. At the same time, it was appreciated, and it was a sweet reminder of one of the things she loved about him the most.

She pulled out one of his many leather jackets. The older, more battered one, the one he had worn when he had walked into the sun. Alice held it close to her body – near enough _hugging_ it, and she shut her eyes. It smelled like her pillow, if not slightly more burnt. That was fine with her, however.

Maria's footsteps brought her out of her stupor. She looked towards the wide doorway, and gave the other woman a gentle smile as she came to join her.

"I would have said straight up that Alcide was coming to give something to you... but it just didn't feel right," Maria said sheepishly.

"It's fine." Alice lowered the jacket to her lap. "I did kind of pick up that he was here with an ulterior motive." She patted it, just to show what the ulterior motive was.

"Nice jacket."

"Hmmm. It has nostalgic notions attached to it."

"How so?"

"Uhh... when I walked into Fangtasia for the first time, this was the jacket he was wearing..." she couldn't help but giggle at that. "He was actually the biggest dick in the world."

"Still is, doll, he still is."

"I guess..." The best she could, Alice folded up the jacket and placed it back in the box, picking up the lid and putting it on top. She moved the box to the coffee table and slouched back into the sofa. "What now?"

"I don't know." Maria copied her stance, and then looked over at Alice expectantly. "You were gonna tell me what happened?"

"Oh yeah! Well... apparently Sookie's blood lets vampires walk in the sun, but only for a small period of time. So Eric had a plan to get Russell to drink it and then let him burn... only Russell clearly smelled a rat, got Eric to drink it too and they ended up nearly burning together. I healed Eric, though. Russell is just... heavily charred and dying in the ground, as far as I'm aware," she explained, not wanting to elaborate too much on the past few days. She just wanted to forget that that little situation with Eric nearly dying ever happened. She'd also quite like to forget Russell Edgington as a whole.

"Should have just let him burn."

"Would have been better for the both of us. And some great karma for me, really. Question..."

"Yeah?"

"In all that time _you_ were at his mansion... did he ever hurt you?"

Maria shook her head.

"No. But then again I did everything he said and told him if I ever got uncomfortable. It kind of worked wonders, but he never let me go."

"Oh... that's um... yeah. Maybe I should have listened to you. I wouldn't have been in this position. Although I'd be without a _really cool_ leather jacket," Alice started laughed and Maria joined her. It was nice for the pair of them to hear _some_ proper laughter after the past week. Eventually, it did die down, as all laughter did and Alice decided she better have a shower, change the bandages on her arm and then she and Maria could go and see Sookie, just to get them out of the house.

* * *

They were not expecting Sookie to _not_ be at her house – it seemed appropriate that she would be, due to the fact that the prior events would at least deem her some time off from work to recover, but the two other women found themselves making their way to Merlotte's. Alice was slightly apprehensive about going, because she'd not exactly been the most amiable to Sam, nor had she checked in with Lafayette after his stint at Fangtasia, but Maria was more than reassuring about the idea.

It was coming up to about two in the afternoon when they finally made it there, and the grill was just dying down after the lunch rush. As soon as the pair of them had walked inside, Sam instantly made his way over to them and immediately wrapped his arms around Alice, who was mildly surprised. Awkwardly, she hugged him back and eventually he let go of her.

"A 'hello' would have been nice," she said.

"Sorry... sorry... I've been worried, y'know?" It was at that moment he noticed Maria. "Hi, I'm Sam... who're you?"

"Maria Venner. New friend of Alice's." She smiled at him and he nodded, ever so slightly bemused by her accent.

"European...?"

"French."

"Oh right... right... well, take a seat and I'll get you anything you want."

"Actually, Sam, we came to see Sookie – she's not at home so we thought maybe..." Alice trailed off, knowing that the rest of the sentence was obvious.

"She's not here, and she was meant to come in for the lunch shift." He scratched the back of his head, looking concerned. "Hey, listen, Alice, can I talk to you outside in private for a moment? Please?"

"Sure," Alice nodded, then turned to Maria. "I'll join you in bit. This won't take a minute."

Maria nodded and went to sit at one of the booths, even though they had no intention of eating there, as Alice walked out with Sam. He led her round to the back of the building near the bins, where there were clear signs of Merlotte's employees having coming out there to smoke during their breaks, as cigarette and cigar stubs littered the ground around them. They came to a stop near the back door.

"Are you okay?" Sam came straight out with. "I haven't seen you for... weeks, really."

"I'm fine," Alice replied a little stiffly. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Tell me really."

"I _should_ be fine. I kind of lifted a weight off my shoulders last night, I guess... well, I didn't _really_ get a weight off my shoulders." Alice kept running her foot back and forth gently over the ground, lighting scuffing it and the bottom of her shoe. "I don't know, Sam, a lot of stuff has happened in the past week and some it has kind of... really... hurt me, to put it lightly."

"Who was it?"

"Werewolves. Vampires. I don't want to go into it." She suddenly felt uncomfortable talking about it, even to Sam, who happened to be one of the nicer people in her life. He nodded.

"You still er... with Eric?"

She grimaced.

"Now _that_ is something I _really_ don't want to talk about."

"All right. I just wanted to check in on you while I had the chance, I guess."

"I'm glad you did, especially considering how MIA I've been with you and everyone in this little town... I mean, I know I'm in Shreveport – it's not too far, I know – but I've been so wrapped up in Eric and my own little world of trouble that I just... forgot," she admitted in defeat. "Too wrapped up, it seems. How's Lafayette?" she asked suddenly.

"He's fine. Doing a lot better, to be honest. From what I hear, he's in a relationship with this really nice guy." Sam looked at her curiously. "Why d'you ask?"

"It's a long story that I don't think he'd appreciate me telling, really..." She fell silent for a moment, then, "you got any spare waitressing slots? Because... I don't want to be cooped up all day and even though I don't think I'd be the most reliable person at the moment... I just need _something._"

"It would be better if you could come in as much as the others, because I always seem to lose waitresses, so that wouldn't be much of a help. Sorry."

Alice shook her head, smiling a little.

"No, it's fine. If I'm gonna be unreliable I might as well not even bother... anyway, I need to get back so um... I'll see you soon, Sam. I'll drop by more often if I can."

Before he could say anything else, she had turned away from him and started walking back towards the entrance of his establishment, leaving him to go back in through the back door ever so slightly bemused by her now less than sweet attitude.

As Alice hurried back into Merlotte's, she gestured to Maria who was idly chatting to Arlene, and they both left promptly. Maria was concerned about how quickly Alice wanted to leave.

"Are you all right?"

"You're going to have to stop asking me that – because we both know that I'm not."

* * *

**So here it is! The start of the new story. It's not going to be overly angsty and feels-y _just_ yet, but there will probably come a point where it has to be, but only for a short while.**

**I know I've left some unanswered questions at the end of the last story, in regards to Alice's/Maria's powers, no less, and even the whole thing between Eric/Alice. See, I didn't want to drastically change what season 3!Eric was like, because season 3!Eric was absolutely bloody ruthless (in fact, that is where he is his _most_ ruthless, so I didn't want to rid the story of that. His harsh and ruthless side is fun to play with, and I realised I had rarely ever written that with regards to Alice... so yeah. Reasoning for that will come... eventually...**

**Comment?  
**

**-OL**


	2. Nightmares

It took the best of two weeks for Alice to realise that she wasn't going to Fangtasia at night. Every night at eight o'clock, she would go down to the front door as if she were about to leave, and then act as if she suddenly remembered that wait, she wasn't leaving. It was only with a slightly dejected nature that she would return back up to her room and then just go straight to up to her room without another word, and only reemerge very late the next morning.

She wasn't entirely talkative, and Maria wondered if that was more do with what had transpired in Mississippi, cutting Eric out of her life for the time being, or a mixture of the two. Her first thought that it was a mixture, but then slowly she thought that perhaps it was more to do with Eric than anything. Even though she had been in the room above the living room, Alice still had not told Maria about her conversation with Eric. Maria was not the sort of person to eavesdrop on private matters, thus meaning she knew nothing.

At one point, after the two week phase of Alice and her short term memory loss, Maria approached the woman one afternoon with concern. She was sitting out in the garden reading a book that she had placed in her lap. It was with great caution that Maria came up to her and picked her words, so as not to upset the woman even further. Before speaking, she sat down next to her.

"Are you... sleeping?" she asked tentatively.

"Not really, no," Alice answered her, without looking up from her book. She sighed and then flipped over to the next page. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you've been disappearing at eight every night and then the next time I see you it's really bloody late in the morning when you've literally _just_ got out of bed." Maria bit her lip. "So you are _trying_ to sleep, yes?"

"I feel sleepy, but I can't seem to get more than three or four hours."

"You considered sleeping pills?"

"Why do you think I sleep in so late?" Alice turned to her, one of her eyebrows shooting upwards. "There's a bottle of them in the bathroom cabinet and they don't seem to work too well. Maybe I'm still just way too... wired about everything."

"You have anxiety. That's different."

"Well then that's _clearly_ the reason why I can't sleep!" She closed her book with a thud, suddenly getting snappy – or more scared than anything. "I'm terrified of what's in my own head, Maria: I watched the man I love nearly turn to ash, and then I saw him ask for a three thousand year old psychotic vampire to be _saved. _Don't get me wrong, you were with that bastard for fifty years but he didn't lay a finger on you. You weren't a prisoner in his house – you were his guest. And three weeks ago, there were four of us – well, _three_ of us who were his prisoners. Me, Tara and Sookie. Bill was kind of his prisoner at first, going by the fact he was taken by force, but then look where he ended up."

After spieling all of that off her chest, Alice's head dropped into her hands, and she gently rubbed her temples with her fingers. Maria, sensing that she needed it, put her arm around the smaller woman in a gesture of comfort. None of this was easy in the slightest. Especially for someone like Alice, who did not have the best mental health in the first place, along with suddenly learning she had some strange supernatural gift and then finally, having vampires after her because of said gift would not put her in the best position to be at her happiest.

Maria had come to figure out that Alice was someone who cried a lot. But she hadn't seen any tears as of late, and she began to wonder whether Alice now only cried when she was alone in her room in an effort to just get it out. However, her eyes only seemed tired and upset, not dried out. In truth, Alice had not cried at all for the past two weeks, but bottling it all up wasn't proving good for her. None of this was.

The first idea that came to Maria's mind about trying to help her feel better would be to just get out of the country for a little while. Go somewhere different, or even see her family – but how would she be able to explain this mess she was in to her family? No, that was a bad idea. Besides, Alice was definitely more introverted than anything, and that was proved by the fact she didn't really speak to new people unless they were introduced to her first. She'd noticed that with Alcide. She noticed how Alice didn't go out much – yes, there was a valid reason for that, but it seemed a good enough reason for her to stay inside and at home for the entire day. Even venturing into the garden had seemed like a foreign idea until today, where she was sitting with her book and trying not to speak with Maria as much.

"I want you to tell me how you feel," Maria said out of the blue. Alice glanced her, her expression torn. She didn't _want_ to talk, but it was better for her to talk to the other woman than not at all.

"I feel like porcelain," she replied after some consideration. "A... very broken porcelain doll. There's only so far I can put myself back together while other people still have pieces of me."

"Crap."

"I don't handle relationship-esque things too well when they go badly... like, the last time I had some serious shit happen with a guy, I ended up staying at my sister's house until I ended up moving here – and that was because he didn't know where my sister lived," she confessed. "It's pathetic, I know, I – I literally moved to a different continent just so I wouldn't be scared anymore... that worked out well."

"Can I ask what happened?"

Alice shifted uncomfortably and Maria nodded.

"Okay. Okay. I know where my boundaries are. Do you want me to go?"

"Only if you want to." Alice shrugged, flipping her book back open again and the other woman nodded once more, getting up and beginning to walk away. "Maria..." she turned towards her friend. "I thought Alcide lived in Jackson?"

"He moved while you were self-bedridden. His sister's salon got burned down, so he gave her his place until she could sort stuff out, so he moved back down here. He told me a couple of weeks ago." There was a tiny smile on her face and it made Alice raise an amused eyebrow at her.

"Does somebody like the big, bad wolf?" she looked somewhat happier than she had done before, and Maria blushed.

"No..."

"Yes you do. It was kind of obvious. Hence why I did tell he could drop by any time."

"I hate you," Maria tried to tell her seriously, but ended up laughing. Alice turned her attention back to her book.

"Hmm, no you don't!" she said in a sing song voice, and Maria merely shook her head as she returned inside.

Alice's posture seemed to slacken as soon as she knew that Maria was off doing something else and away from the kitchen window. Sighing, wiped her watery eyes. No. She would not keep on crying about this. At least Maria had the potential of something with someone lovely like Alcide, while she was still hung up on Eric. She couldn't be jealous. Not now. Not when her friendship with Maria was just starting out.

* * *

_The walls of the room felt like they were closing on her, but there was something horrible unfamiliar about the place she was in. The room was dimly lit, but everything was becoming brighter she found that she wasn't alone. The tall, blonde figure or Eric was standing there, as well as the slightly shorter dark-haired figure of Russell._

_The strangest thing, was that Alice could see herself on the floor, leaning against the sofa._

"_Cat got your tongue?" Russell asked the Alice on the floor._

_The Alice standing up in the corner realised what was happening – it was a replay. But why was it only happening now?_

"_Tell me why the _fuck_ I was burning, or so help me I will burn _you,_" he told her in that dangerous voice. And then the next thing happening was him hauling her by the middle towards the fire._

"Eric!_" Memory-Alice yelled out, and everything in the room stopped for the briefest of moments._

"_So you can speak?"_

"_Please..." she ended up begging._

"_I'm not done with you yet."_

_Her arm was in the fire, and Memory-Alice screamed along with the Alice watching the whole scene play out before her eyes. However, the moment that she in the corner _did_ scream, Russell's attention turned to her. He dropped Memory-Alice – or more accurately, tossed her in the other direction in an attempt to run after Alice in the corner._

_Everything seemed to slow down again as began to try and bolt her way out of the room, only just about managing it. Why wasn't he coming after her with his vampire speed? Why was he running at a normal speed? Or in fact, slower than her?_

_Either way, she ran out of the room and through the hallway and up the stairs, trying to find her way about the maze of the mansion. She looked behind her to see Russell still running after her at a normal pace. That was her mistake to turn back, because when she looked forward again he was in front of her with a garish grin on his face. She skidded to her a stop._

"_Got you," he murmured, before grabbing her and allowing his fangs to come down to sink them into her neck–_

Gasping for breath and scrabbling at her neck, Alice sat upright shaking. A thin sheen of sweat covered her entire body, and with a trembling hand she reached over to switch on the lamp in her room. Now feeling uncomfortable with the bandages round her left arm, she hurriedly ripped them off, only slightly relieved when the cooler air hit them.

She sat as still as she could while shaking, trying to bring herself back to reality. It was just a bad dream. A bad dream of the past. Over three weeks ago or not, it was in the past. But it would still terrify her – which was understandable, but she didn't _want_ it to terrify her. Alice just wanted to be separated from that time in her life. Be done with it. But no, a delayed reaction to everything is what she got for trying to attempt to make herself feel better.

Managing to get out of bed, Alice went over to curtains, drawing them back and opening up one of the windows. She leaned against the window sill and stuck her head outside, feeling grateful for the fact that it was much cooler out there than in her room. It made her head feel somewhat clearer, and it helped to rid her of some of the sweat, particularly on her arm. She looked down at it. It was still fairly pink, but it would be properly healed soon, she expected.

Retreating back inside, Alice decided she needed a glass of water and began to make her way down to the kitchen. As she flipped on the lights in the living room, she heard something creak outside. She stopped for a moment, and when the noise didn't occur again, she put it down to just the front porch settling, or something like that.

Going into the kitchen, she turned on one of the smaller unit lights and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, thankful that she was able to slowly calm down and no longer be shaking. Filling it up at the sink, she took it back into the living room and sat down on the couch, sipping on it in a mechanical way. The first time she actually gets some proper sleep and she has a bloody nightmare, of all the things. It wasn't fair in the slightest.

Then again, that was just life in a nutshell. For the most part, it was more unfair than fair.

About forty five minutes later, Alice returned to her room in order to try and get some sleep. It was verging on two in the morning and she wanted to at least try. She might have another bad dream, but she wasn't sure if it mattered or not.

No longer covered in sweat, she snuggled back down under the sheets and shut her eyes, willing for a dreamless sleep to come to her.

* * *

After a few sleepless nights, Alice found herself at Merlotte's one evening, sitting up at the bar taking drink after drink, simply because she could and she wanted to.

"You might wanna slow down, there," said the man who was sitting two seats down from her, but now he moved up one to sit next to her. A slight frown on her face, she turned to look at him.

"Oh, you're cute."

He chuckled and she stared at him some more.

"Why do you care if I drink so much?" she then asked him.

"I'm a nurse. Strictly speaking, I don't work at your usual hospital, but I've seen my fair share of alcohol poisoning."

"You're not only cute, but you're also annoying caring about strangers," she sighed, downing the rest of some whisky she had. "I'm fed up of that type."

"What's your name?"

"What's it to you?"

"I'm just curious. Don't bite me." He held up his hands in surrender.

"Alice. What about you, Mr Curious?"

"I'm Jesús," he said, looking quite bemused by smiley.

"So like Jesus, but with an accent over the 'u'?"

"How did you get that one?"

"I took Spanish at university and I _still_ have no idea why." Alice shrugged.

"Well, Alice, I think you're in a lot of pain and you need to get home."

"What's that now about getting' home?" Lafayette came sauntering behind the counter, pulling out a bottle of vodka and a shot glass, pouring some for himself. "You flirtin' with _my_ man, Alice?"

Alice groaned.

"Seriously? I get talking to someone who has the potential for me to have my way with, and he turns out to be _gay._" She pouted, and the two men found that quite amusing. "Just my luck, isn't it? I talk to a guy and he either turns out to be gay _or_ a vampire who isn't capable of giving me a straight explanation despite his insistence of caring about me." Alice paused for a moment. "This isn't like me. I don't get drunk when I'm sad. Now I'm even _more_ sad. Usually when I'm drunk I'm all giggly and full of innuendos but _no_, not today and not for a while."

They stared at her in shock.

"Jesús, I think yous gonna have to get her home."

"What the hell was that outburst about?" Jesús asked Lafayette in a hushed voice.

"I think she broke up with a guy in a really bad way, or somethin'," he said, not entirely sure of the whole situation. He turned to Alice. "Was you even going out with him?"

"We fucked _once_ but kissed _a lot,_ and we did say and do nice things for each other... until that whole fucking mess in Mississippi and now I have nightmares and pine after him during the day which is _really_ ironic because he's a vampire." She said it in a zoned out yet matter of fact way, and then smiled at the two of them in a way that suggested she was more pissed off than upset about it at the moment. Drunk. She was definitely drunk.

"Get her home. _Now._ Because this," Lafayette did a very dramatic gesture at Alice, making her jump in her seat a little, "English rage knows _no bounds.__"_

"I can tell. I'll come back here later? Or shall I meet you at your place?" Jesús asked.

"I'll be at mine by the time you get back here." Lafayette winked and then started to shoo them off.

Taking gentle hold of Alice's arm, Jesús led her out of Merlotte's and into the car park, wherein she stumbled a little bit. He went to steady her but she batted him away and he realised it was just a ploy in order to get him to stop holding onto her. She then pulled her leather jacket – which was admittedly, a little too big for her – tighter around her body, and looked at him expectantly.

"My car or your car?" she wondered.

"We'll take mine," he replied and beckoned her to come over to his. Jesús unlocked the doors and made sure Alice got into the passenger seat okay before going round to the driver's seat. He watched as she buckled herself in and then he did the same thing before staring up the engine and driving off. "Where do you live?"

"Shreveport." She seemed slightly more subdued now. Jesús glanced over at her momentarily.

"Jacket seems a bit big on you."

"It's not mine... it's Eric."

"Is he...?"

"Yes."

"Why'd you keep it?"

"He sent it to me the day after... stuff. Why am I telling this to you? I don't even know you and you're being _really_ friendly and that kind of scares me."

"You're a friend of Lafayette's. And I know for a fact you have some sort of power. I just don't know what and I'd rather not know what. You're scared. You're hurting. I'm not going to pry into your personal life, but _you're_ choosing to tell me all this, because, as you put it, I'm being friendly," he explained to her.

"Does it ever end?" she asked quietly.

"What?"

"The hurting."

"Have you been in a relationship before this?"

"Yes, but I ended that for a different reason. This wasn't quite a relationship. Not yet, anyway..."

"It does stop, although it depends on one thing."

"Which is what?"

"Do you still love him?"

Alice snorted.

"I think you know the answer to that one already."

Jesús made a humming noise and they carried on in silence until she had to start directing him to her road. Eventually, when they pulled up outside her house, he didn't let her go in straight away.

"Why do you have nightmares?"

"They're only a recent thing..." She rolled her eyes. "You're not my therapist. You're a nurse."

"Why do you have nightmares, Alice?" He repeated his question.

"The mess in Mississippi. That's all I'm gonna say." She undid the seatbelt and opened the car door. "Thanks for the ride, Jesús,." Her lips twitched upward for a moment, and she was gone, leaving the man feeling more curious than anything. But he knew his boundaries with strangers – or acquaintances in this case – and he wouldn't bother her on the topic again, providing he saw Alice in the near future. If he did see her, he'd wait until she'd tell him. It was only right.

* * *

**Jesús is my favourite, okay? I didn't intend to write him in this early but then it just sort of happened because I love him too much and he's just so great and I'm still in denial over his death ;_; Speaking of denial: at least Alice is getting over the denial stage. Ish. She's not a very happy bunny at the moment and with good reason.**

**Oh and the next chapter is gonna be all Eric and Pam and fun times happening at Fangtasia!**

**Comment?**

**-OL**


	3. News

The thrum of the music was hardly welcome to Eric's ears anymore. He was back to his usual task of sitting up on the throne on the stage, bored out of his fucking mind. He was just merely watching some of the pathetic clientele his nightclub received, but at least a majority of them were less pathetic than he originally thought. Although those were usually the other vampires. It was the humans that dressed up all gothic that really unimpressed Eric.

He glanced over to the bar, where Pam was serving drinks. He'd tried that the other week – serving drinks. It was just a shame he got too pissed off with the drunk humans and their attempts at communicating with him. The throne was where he stayed, because that way, Eric could summon up people only he wanted to talk to, and would receive no unwanted attention. Yes, sometimes the occasional human would come to gawk at him, but no other contact was established and they kept a good six metres away from him.

Truth be told, Eric was not in the mood for any trouble anymore. In fact, he was still surprised he even had people coming in here because of the fact that Russell Edgington had ripped out a man's spine on live television. But then again, there were always the idiots and the extremists in the world. Not that he would kill any human in his bar. No, Eric wasn't like that. He didn't kill randomly and unprovoked. Not anymore, at least.

Even if he did still have that thirst killing whenever he desired, he wouldn't do it anyway. They lived in a new world where people would know if someone had been killed in a vampire attack, and despite despising the role of it in the first place, Eric did not want to lose his status as a sheriff. It gave him some power over other vampires, and he certainly liked a bit of power. He didn't let it get to his head or abuse it, but he definitely knew when to wield it properly. Either way – he was a six foot four, one thousand year old, Viking vampire. He was the very definition of power, in that sense at least.

If there was one thing that did nag at him about this whole 'power' thing, is that he now had to bow down to Bill Compton and kiss his ass, considering he was the new vampire king of Louisiana. Eric didn't care about what happened to Sophie-Ann. The only thing he cared about was that Bill had taken her place as royalty.

Eric was certain that within the first few days of Bill being king that there had been at least seven attempts on his life. All because he had wanted to keep dear Sookie Stackhouse safe. But then it all just sort of stopped and he had been summoned down to the old Compton manor, which was in the process of being done up – to be fit for a king, so it would seem.

Bill had been less than pleased to see Eric, but Eric felt exactly the same way as the other vampire had done, but perhaps even more so. It was possible. Bill had done a lot of things to make Eric completely and wholeheartedly detest him. Hate him. Want to drive a stake through his heart. He figured he wouldn't have felt like that if Pam hadn't told him everything she had found out in addition to what Eric knew – she was very good at digging, that was for sure...

It seemed as if Sookie Stackhouse was missing, and thus Bill made a formal apology to Eric for trying to assassinate him and Pam, too. To Eric, that apology was all useless drivel, but he merely accepted it, took any payment that Bill offered to him (it was the least the baby vampire – in his eyes, Bill was a baby vampire as he was only a tenth of his age – could do). Then he had swiftly left and had been brooding in his own establishment ever since. Brooding over a multitude of things.

Apparently Pam was picking up on his continual brooding. Apparently it was beginning to concern her, but it was only tonight she spoke up about it.

As he watched her zip up from the bar and next to him, Eric sighed. She rested an arm on the back of his throne and leaned down to speak quietly in his ear.

"Is there something you're not telling me, Eric?"

Ah. That would be it too. He hadn't told her about the fact Sookie was missing, the assassination attempts (how could she not have known about those?), the fact he was concerned about the vampires in his area due to the politcal mess with Russell killing a human on live television, and last but not least... perhaps the smallest of all his problems that he made out to be the largest... but Pam knew about that anyway. Most of it, at least.

He'd not said or thought of her name for what seemed like a blink of an eye, but if the human woman knew about this fact, then just over two weeks to her would seem like an offence. In fact, two weeks plus was less than the blink of an eye for Eric. A thousand years could do that to someone.

"No," he lied, not looking at her but continually straight ahead, until his attention was drawn to one of the attractive dancers that worked for them.

"Eric. Stop it." Pam was the least bit impressed with him. She could always see through his lies. "What is the matter with you, lately?"

"It's none of your concern for the time being. We have a business to run." He hesitated. "I'm also hungry. Bring me him," he pointed at dancer number one, closest to him, "and her," dancer number two, a little further off but her breasts were out as she worked her way round the pole.

"Hmm. She's yummy," Pam smirked, and then it faltered. "Fucking hell. If you are picking that woman to drink from and maybe even fuck just because she–"

Eric's eyes flashed with anger and he stood up quickly, towering over Pam.

"Do _not_ assume _anything_ of the sort like that again. Do you understand me?" he hissed at her. Eric rarely ever got irate with Pam, but he had already been on edge and she had pushed him over it. She gave him a hard stare.

"I'll get your humans for you." She gave him a very false smile before walking off, and he stormed towards his office. Away from the idiots and away from the noise.

Ripping off is leather jacket and tossing it onto his desk chair, Eric realised he would have to make it up to Pam in the next day or two. While he loved Pam more when she was cold and heartless, it wasn't fun to be on the receiving end of that.

Eventually, the two dancers walked in, dressed in the appropriate attire to be a dancer at Fangtasia. Skimpy looking leather. That was pretty much it. They even had dark make up, but that actually looked somewhat good, but Eric supposed that had all been down to Pam. Yes, it had been _entirely_ coincidental that the woman had ginger hair. Well, it was flaming. More close to fake red than ginger, but even so... it was almost there. Not that he'd let that get in the way of his feeding...

The guy was slightly more interesting, partially down to the fact that he was Scandinavian, going by his accent. Eric said something to him in Swedish just to test the waters and he replied in Danish – they were similar languages, so it didn't matter too much. They could still understand each other. The woman was slightly confused. She was local, Eric knew that much. That was all he knew about his employees – he was only interested in where they came from and what they could bring to the bar.

A few pleasantries were exchanged, so to speak, and Eric went with the woman first. She was a little too enthusiastic, but her blood was nice enough and it satiated him for the time being. The man looked at him in confusion until Eric went right up to him and began to snog the living daylights out of him. Eric had always been so open to anything. He just happened to have a preference for women.

Besides, the little get together in his office didn't last too long and soon enough the dancers were beginning to make out with each other so he chucked them out of there.

Sighing, he sank down to sit on his desk with his head in his hands. This was so pathetic. Everything about this situation was pathetic – everything about _him_ was pathetic. He didn't get like this over humans. Not in the slightest. Sure, there were other things going on in his life at the moment, but for the majority of the time, Alice was always at the forefront of his mind. Mainly because he could still feel her, and it wasn't good in the slightest.

"So what the fuck was that all about?" Pam stood in the doorway to his office, and she took three steps in after her question and kicked the door shut with her heel. "Because if this ends up like Yvetta–"

"I needed a distraction." Eric sat up straighter now that he was in the presence of his progeny.

"Yvetta or those two hoes you just had in here?" She was still pissed off with him, and rightly so.

"Both. Just – anyone I've been feeding from the past few weeks. It doesn't feel right, Pam. None of them taste right!"

"I get the fact that you're distressed about this, but for fuck sake, Eric, _you_ are a fucking Viking vampire who has _never_ been at the mercy of his feelings like this before!" Pam came closer to him, more concerned than anything, putting a hand on his shoulder. He stared down at her like bemused kitten who didn't know what to do with the comfort it was getting. "You tasted her _once_. Just _once._ And now everything else feels wrong to you? The last time you went monogamous with a human was in the eighties, and look what happened to her!"

"Alice is something more than human," he murmured. That was the first time he'd said her name in weeks.

"I know she is, but Eric, what have you been feeling from her?"

"She's depressed. Actually depressed and terrified and... something else. I don't know what it is, but there's something else there too. And it's not just because of me. I don't think she leaves the house much..."

"See? As much as I like her, it might always end the same and I don't want to see you... well, worse off than this," Pam admitted, her face soft as she removed her hand from his shoulder.

"I know. But I care too much about her."

Pam let out a long breath and when Eric looked at her, he realised there was something she wasn't telling him.

"What?" he asked her with a frown on his face.

"Eric... she... I don't think I should be telling you this, but..."

"Spit it out, Pamela. Don't make me–"

"She _loves_ you."

Eric blanched and just stared at his progeny for quite some time, not entirely sure how to take in this new piece of information. That might explain the third thing he had been feeling from Alice. But it suddenly all made sense. When she saw him with Yvetta and the way she still took care of him when he burned – after he had been so cruel to her. He wondered how long she had felt like that. He presumed it was long before encountering him with Yvetta in the Fangtasia basement.

"Fuck me," he let out, quite loudly at that too. Pam raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm pretty sure the little butterfly would do just that if you fucking fixed things!" she ended up shouting at him.

"It's not that simple, Pam!" he yelled back at her, standing up as he did so. But he tried to keep cool after that. He wouldn't lose his head with Pam again tonight... otherwise he really would be in the dog house. If he was rude to Pam again, she'd probably make him sleep in the Fangtasia basement for all he knew... "I need to find the right words. You know what she's like. She's stubborn, but she likes things to be done properly."

"Then find something in that head of yours before it's too late. Like I said before, I know you care about her, so just try and show her you can. I know that human ladies like pretty flowers and chocolates and sappy love cards." She gave him the most sickly sweet smile possible, and Eric couldn't help but chuckle.

"I wouldn't be seen truly dead walking into a human card shop."

"I know, but it would be fun to make you try. Now. Are we done here? As much as I _love_ a good, deep and meaningful conversation with you, I kinda get bored with it after a while. I prefer being that cold and heartless gal that you love, because I love it too."

"Fine," Eric waved her off. "We're done with the 'deep and meaningful' shit for tonight. Maybe for good. I feel weird talking about this with you."

"Likewise. Especially because I could totally fuck her."

"You'd enjoy it," Eric commented in an offhand manor. "She does that thing where she'll rake her nails down your back– no. I'm not thinking about that."

The look on Pam's face was priceless and Eric was able to put two and two together to realise she had basically set him up to say that.

"Before I tell you to get back to it, I have a bit of news for you."

"Oh?"

"Sookie Stackhouse has gone missing."

"Huh," Pam said after a moment or two. She'd never really cared much for Sookie in the first place, so it didn't affect her in the slightest that the woman was missing.

"You _do_ know what she is, don't you?" Eric found his progeny's lack of reaction disturbing as he walked round to sit in his desk chair, picking up his jacket from it as he did so.

"Nope."

"Fae."

"That explains the day walking blood then..."

"We need to be mildly concerned, or at least pretend we are for _'King Bill,'_" Eric rolled his eyes as he said that.

"Scrawny little shitbag."

"Isn't he just?" He gave her a cocky half-smile. "Anyway... I was wondering if you could tell _her._"

"Why?"

"She's not aware of it, I don't think."

"And you want me to tell her _why?_"

Eric sat in thought for a moment before coming to a viable conclusion.

"They're friends. She should know."

"Is it vital I tell her right away?"

"Not really. But as long as you do, then I don't really care."

Pam snorted.

"Right. Like _you_ don't care."

"You know what I mean."

"Uh huh," Pam nodded before walking out of the office, leaving Eric to mope in his own self pity and emotion.

* * *

**I couldn't make this chapter as long as I wanted it to be, but oh well! We got us some Eric and Pam, and there will be more.**

**Also I have a headcanon that Eric is a bisexual. I mean, you saw that scene with Talbot? The way in season 2 where he didn't mind that the woman in the shop thought he and Bill were a gay couple? Besides, he's been around a thousand years so of course he would be trying out everything. It fits his character very well, if you ask me.**

**Anyway, next chapter is Pam chatting to Alice and it's Halloween. There may or may not be a thing where Alice and Maria rope Pam into watching a couple of scary movies with them. Shhhh.**

**Comment?**

**-OL.**


	4. Halloween

"Alice...?" Maria called out. Upon receiving no answer, she headed straight on into the other woman's room to find her still curled up in bed. "Alice, it's gone midday."

An incoherent mumbling response was all Maria received. On closer inspection, she saw that Alice was wearing the leather jacket. Again. Sighing, Maria perched herself on one side of the double bed, lightly shoving Alice in the back.

"Come on. I do kind of get that this is hard for you, but I did hear about your stint at Merlotte's the other night and staying in bed isn't going to fix anything more than drinking." She paused for a moment. "Also, it's Halloween. More specifically, our first vampire free Halloween! At least... that's what I'm hoping for..."

"Really couldn't care less about anything right now," Alice murmured into her pillow. "But thanks for reminding me of my stint. I could use another drink. I know there's some wine in one of the kitchen cupboards..."

That just seemed to make Maria pissed off.

"Alice – _no._ Do you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna get the fuck out of bed, take a fucking shower, eat some god damn food and then I'm going to have a little talk with you. It has been over three weeks and I _really couldn't care less_ anymore about your romance issues, because it seems to have given you attitude problems. So we're gonna talk about that. Understand?"

No answer. Beginning to get really angry, Maria picked up one of the pillows and whacked Alice over the head with it, causing the other woman to suddenly sit up and frown at her. Satisfied, Maria left the room and headed back downstairs, but no less irate than before.

After a few moments, Alice got out of bed and hastily removed the leather jacket, throwing it across the room as she did so. Storming out of the bedroom and to the bathroom, Alice began to hurriedly brush her teeth and when she was done with that, she stripped off her clothes before getting into the shower.

Maria's words had been more than just a kick up the back side. She could admit she'd been less than hospitable to Maria, something of which the other woman probably didn't want after trying to help her. The least Alice could do was actually be nice and less pathetic about everything in her own life. She wanted to say it wasn't her fault she was unable to deal with relationships ending badly, but it was all down to her, really. She'd told Eric to leave her alone. Yes, he'd done some shitty things but that didn't give her the right to take it out on the one person being kind to her.

She stood under the running shower water and smacked the tiled wall as hard as she could without it hurting her. Except of course, it did hurt her. And because it hurt, she let herself cry. It had been a while since she actually had, and it made her feel more alive than she had done for almost the past month. Alice more or less erupted into sobs, her entire body wracking with them and it was only when she began to feel dizzy did she realise something was wrong with the way she was crying.

Shutting off the water as fast as her now shaking hands would let her, Alice stepped out of the shower and quickly wrapped a towel around herself. Fuck the feeling of being more alive. Hyperventilating. That was what was happening right now. She'd gone nearly a whole month without a panic attack and this was one of the more inconvenient times for her to have one. She clutched at the sink, heaving, feeling like she really was about to be sick, but nothing came out. There was nothing _to_ come out.

Eventually, she sank down onto the floor when the dizziness started to settle in, deciding to sit leaning back against the bit of wall by the door. Alice wrapped her arms around herself, bringing her knees up and resting her forehead on them, still not calming down as a plethora of bad thoughts really streamed through her mind about... well, everything. Maria was beyond pissed off with her. Eric was probably feeling the exact same thing. Lafayette and Jesús were probably not impressed with her. Sam was probably only pitying her. And Bill... well, who the fuck knew what he thought of anybody anymore?

She was tempted to call out for Maria, but realised that the other woman really probably didn't want to deal with her right now.

"Jesus Christ..." Alice muttered to herself, trying to regulate her breathing. "Fuck." She hastily wiped her eyes and then just sat quietly while trying to calm herself down. How long she sat there, she didn't know. But the quiet and coolness of the bathroom was welcome.

* * *

Eric woke with a start and pretty much flew out of bed, his fangs bared.

What the fuck was going on? He'd never felt Alice's fear _this_ bad before, unless it was when she... ah. Eric looked at the clock on the wall. It was still daylight. What was happening? What had happened for her to suddenly panic? And he couldn't go to her, unless he wanted to die in the process of getting from his house to hers.

If anything, he was just thankful that his light tight windows were fairly hard to break, otherwise he would have jumped right through it to get to her. And because he knew he couldn't, because he knew she couldn't get to her, he tipped over his bed so hard it crashed into the wall and let out a loud shout of pain before falling to his knees.

"What the _fuck_, Eric?!" Pam's angry voice came from the doorway. Seething, he turned to face her and slowly began to cool it off. He retracted his fangs and felt deflated. Seeing the way he was, Pam decided it would be better to be softer with him, and so came over to kneel on the floor next to him, placing her arms around him in a gentle hug. "Eric, tell me."

Burying his face into his progeny's shoulder, Eric tentatively hugged her back, simply holding Pam in silence for some time before he started talking.

"She's not well..." he then murmured, hating how weak he sounded. "And I can't look after her... I – I think I fucked up, Pam."

"Yes you did," she told him honestly, but gently. If there was one thing he loved about Pam, is that she didn't bullshit him, even if he was upset or pissed about something. If he was upset, she was just more careful with how she sounded. That was the only difference. "Big time." She pulled away from him, and pushed his mussed hair back into place.

"Have you spoken to her yet?"

Pam shook her head.

"Can you tonight?"

"Sure."

"Tell her I miss her."

"Honey, I think that's something you should tell her yourself," she chuckled. "Come on now. Eric Northman doesn't get upset over a human, as remarkable and beautiful and fuckable as she may be. Get up." Pam then stood, and began to pull him up onto his two feet.

"If you like her so much, why don't you have her?" Eric raised an eyebrow at her, clearly amused by the sentence.

"Because she's a person and not an object that gets passed around. Either way, she's _yours._ I think she may that clear from day one, really."

"Don't you mean _I_ made that clear from day one?"

"No. Alice made it clear that she was _yours._ She never took an interest in anybody else, even though you said she went on a date with the shifter. You said she started calling you 'Eric' that night. She was in love with you before she even realised it," Pam paused for a moment. "You could have had sex with her any time you wanted and you chose to do it in _Dallas_?"

Eric managed to laugh, despite the fact that he could still feel Alice's lingering panic and despite the fact that his ears were now bleeding, as were Pam's. They really needed to get back to sleep soon.

"Well I could never have been sure if she wanted to come back here."

"Ahhh, so you wanted to give her a night of _luxury_ in our own home, but didn't know if she liked you enough to come back here? And you would have doubted yourself _now_ even if she didn't hate you?"

Eric's silence told Pam everything she needed to know.

"Well, I'm going back to sleep. See you in a few hours." Pam pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and began to exit from the room, before Eric spoke up again.

"I was _hers_ from day one, Pam. She was never mine. She's too good to be mine."

Pam glanced back at him sadly.

"If you keep believing that she's too 'good' to be yours, then you'll never get her back. You're tough as fuck, Eric, but that doesn't mean you're _not good._"

As she left, Eric sighed.

Pam was right.

* * *

After getting dressed, Alice wandered over to the corner of the room where she had so violently thrown Eric's jacket earlier. She picked it up and tightly wrapped her arms around it, before burying her nose in it. It smelt like him. That was the primary reason she slept with it on. She'd fallen asleep with Eric lying next to her so many times that it felt odd not to have his smell around her. It was just unfortunate it couldn't keep the nightmares at bay.

Smiling sadly, she put it down on her bed carefully, before making her way downstairs.

Maria didn't look all too impressed with the fact it had taken almost an _hour_ for Alice to get ready, but when she saw how drained Alice looked, she frowned.

"You okay?" she asked as Alice sat down at the kitchen table.

"I had a panic attack in the shower," she murmured.

"Oh. Crap. Uh – will you be okay?"

Alice just waved it off, not wanting to talk about it. Maria could take a hint, and then pushed a bowl of cereal and a spoon towards her. Alice looked at it oddly.

"It's two in the afternoon..."

"And you've not been eating properly. Cereal seemed like a better option." Maria shrugged, and Alice mimicked her before beginning to eat it. Slowly. "Okay. First off: you're a little bit of a crappy host. Secondly: you're not well. Thirdly: we _do_ need to get you working on your abilities."

Alice gave her a slightly shocked look just before she put a spoonful in her mouth.

"I know, that was direct and harsh, but you kind of need to hear it."

"All right..."

"And you also kind of need to... well, not let it go, but have a little break. Just take things off your mind. Which is why I thought tonight would be good for that! Even if you don't..."

"Your lack of faith _astounds_ me," Alice muttered sarcastically. Maria glared at her from across the table.

"Really? You have one of your _moments_ in the shower and you come back to the real world acting even more ridiculous than you were before."

"Cut me some slack."

"Haha, _no._ I've been doing that for a while now and I'm slightly tired of it." Maria raised an eyebrow at her, but all she received in return was a more passive look. "Fine. I'm inviting Alcide over, just so I can have a bit of fun if you're going to mope."

"Fine by me."

"Good. Now we can move onto the second point – do you take any medication?"

"I've not really _needed_ to because it's never been this bad before." Alice dropped her spoon back into the bowl and folded her arms, frowning, but also curious. "You're good at this."

"Good at what?"

"Getting stuff done."

"That's what happens when you live with a three thousand-year-old vampire for fifty years."

"And also making people feel bad."

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Maria gave her a wry smile.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Fuck you, Watson."

Alice blanched.

"You know the come back?"

"Of course I do," she replied proudly. "I did live through the seventies, after all."

"Right... yeah, you did, didn't you?" Alice now continued to finish off her cereal. "Okay, back to the point."

"You need help in more ways than one."

"I really don't want a therapist if that's what you're suggesting," she groaned. "Mostly because I'd have to skip on most of the reasons _why_ I ended up in Mississippi and telling a regular human that I can see the god damn future is going to get me sectioned, probably. And if I lied to the therapist then I could get done for being a pathological liar. If you can get done for that, anyway... I have no idea."

"All right, fair point. Maybe see a doctor, get something to help you function like you did before, eat more, sleep more, actually _do_ something instead of stay in your room most of the time..."

"I do agree with that, but I can't actually sleep. I've been having nightmares and sleeping pills don't really help with that."

"Keep trying and see what happens." Maria shrugged.

"Fine. Last point."

"I think we should deal with that when you look less like you're going to drop dead at any given moment."

"Shit, do I look that bad?"

"Yeah."

There was a moment of silence before Alice spoke.

"So what are the plans for tonight?"

Maria grinned.

"I knew I'd get through to you."

* * *

"You own a lot of wine... and just alcohol in general."

It was evening, and Alice and Maria were standing and staring at one of the kitchen counter tops, which was filled with all the alcohol that Alice actually owned.

"I've been technically single since last year," the red head replied.

"But eight bottles of wine, are you serious?"

"Oh there was more, but then I had a friend over a few weeks ago and we depleted half the alcohol I had."

"Jesus Christ... Also: the vodka. How many bottles?"

"Three. That's not much." Alice gave Maria a strange look.

"They're fucking huge."

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Also what the _hell_ are Bacardi Breezers?"

"The best thing you will ever taste. Trust me. Although you're gonna have to remind me what the aim of tonight is?"

"Me to have fun. You to calm down. Everyone gets pissed."

"Sounds good."

"And after midnight we're cracking out the scary movies."

"I swear the scariest movie I own is _Antichrist..._"

"I went through your cupboards, and it's really not. Also, I'm just double checking you'll be okay to have alcohol after this morning?"

"Yeah, I should be fine. Let's just say I was teensy bit reckless at university, so um... I know these things," Alice admitted sheepishly.

"Wait, so you've had panic attacks before and still gone out drinking soon afterwards?"

"Like I said. Teensy bit reckless."

"All right then... come on." Maria took Alice by the wrist and started to drag her out and up the stairs. "I got you an outfit."

"When?!" Alice struggled to get out of Maria's grip.

"Like last week when you were sleeping."

"And with what money?"

"Errr..."

"Maria, what did you do?" Alice asked as they entered the brunette's room.

"I discovered that Mr Eric Northman has a tab going at the more _high end_ stores in Shreveport _and_ in one of the costume shops."

"Costume shop?"

"Yep." Maria delved into her wardrobe and started looking around for something.

"Kinky arsehole... But how did you find out?"

"I walked past someone at the counter who was picking up something for him, or whatever."

"And you abused his tab?"

"God yes."

"Maria?"

"Hmm?"

"I bloody love you. But we need to get you a job."

"I knew you'd like that." Maria pulled a piece of clothing out of the wardrobe and it near enough matched Alice's hair colour. "And I know. When you've been half dead in the mornings, I have been going out and trying to..."

Alice nodded in acknowledgement to that statement, but she was more concerned about what Maria was holding.

"That is a bright red-orange thing you've got there."

"You're being a fire fairy tonight."

"Where the hell did you even get this?" Alice took the knee-length flowing dress from Maria as she handed it over.

"Never you mind. Oh, got you some wings, too." She fished out a plastic bag and handed it to Alice too. "There's also a little silver tiara in there."

"You've really gone all out – is there something you're not telling me?" Suspicion crossed Alice's face.

"Nope," Maria answered a little too quickly.

"I don't quite believe you... Anyway, what are you dressing up as?"

"A cat."

"Alcide's coming as a wolf, isn't he?"

"Yep," Maria grinned, and Alice shuddered.

"That's gross."

"Shut up and get dressed."

Chuckling to herself for what seemed like the first time in a while, Alice made her way to her own room and started stripping off her day clothes in order to wear the near enough neon outfit that Maria had gotten for her. She was surprised at how well it actually did match her hair, as did the wings. They were a bit flimsy as she put them on, but they were fine. The tiara was Alice's favourite part, and she genuinely felt like some sort of princess or queen as she put it on. Maybe tonight was going to be good for her. She was certainly feeling more light hearted.

Just as she finished getting changed, there was a knock on the door. Alice hurriedly ran out the room and down the stairs, simply because she knew it would be Alcide – and she was right on that part. Upon opening the door, she could have laughed. His hair was all very messy, he was wearing a furry waistcoat (which was not buttoned up) and a pair of very tight black jeans, as well as some very fluffy mittens.

"You are literally a walking stereotype," was the first thing that Alice said to him.

"And you look like you're in fire," Alcide retorted, before leaning down to quickly kiss her on the cheek. "Heya, Red."

"I think I'm more orange than red tonight... Come in." Alice stepped aside to the let the larger man through, and she noticed he was carrying a pack of beer. "You really didn't need to do that," she said as she shut the door. "We've got enough."

"Yeah," he snorted. "Right. Where can I put this?"

"Kitchen. You'll know where." Alice went to the bottom of the stairs. "Maria, Alcide's here!" she shouted up, just as the other woman came round the corner in a very tight, black one-piece wearing a cat ears headband and also a tail. "Just a word to the wise..." she said quietly as Maria got down. "If you Alcide decide to do anything that requires the removal of clothing, please keep it quiet and in your room. I don't want to hear or see that crap."

"No worries. Where is he?"

"Kitchen or the living room, I really don't know..."

Just then, there was another knock on the door. Maria ran off, and as Alice went to answer it, her earlier suspicions were confirmed. Outside stood Sam, Lafayette, Jesús, Arlene and another man she supposed was Terry. Her jaw dropped open.

"What – what are you guys doing here?" she asked, her bottom lip trembling.

"Here to cheer you up," said Sam.

"Ironic, 'cause he ain't so cheery himself..." Lafayette said, and both Jesús and Arlene whacked him.

Alice didn't say another word, and simply bolted it back up stairs to her room, slamming the door in her wake. Seeing the leather jacket, she picked it up and sat down on the floor, leaning back against the bed. She was partially hidden from the door, only her head being in view of it, and tears started slipping down her face.

As much as she appreciated the surprise from Maria, she really did hate surprises. And after only being just two of them in the house for a month, suddenly having it filled with people and lots of alcohol didn't seem like fun to her. She would have been perfectly happy with just Maria and Alcide – still dressed up, just for the hell of it – chatting and drinking and doing stupid stuff and watching horror films.

She just wanted to feel normal again, and have things be normal. That was all she wanted. Was it really so much to ask?

"Alice?" came a soft voice from the doorway. She hadn't even been aware that somebody had opened it.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Sam. Can I–?

"Yeah."

She heard him click the door shut and he came over to sit down next to her. Sam put his arm around her and she leaned into him, letting herself cry into his shirt.

"What's the matter, Red?"

"I wasn't expecting any of you. And – and I _hate_ surprises. But I can't – why?"

"Why what? Why are we here? Like I said, we just wanted to cheer you up. Maria came down the other week and said you were having a rough time of it and she thought that tonight of all nights would be... well, you can guess the rest."

"The – the fact you did it. I just – I'm happy for it, too? I don't – I don't know anymore." If it were possible, Alice just seemed to bury herself further into Sam's chest and a small smile crossed his face.

"It's all right. Come on, now, don't cry. I think Maria's poured you a very, _very_ big glass of wine."

Alice moved her head and looked up at Sam.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and stood up, bringing Alice with him. At this point, he noticed the jacket and she just simply shook her head and put it down on the bed again.

Alice wiped her tears away quickly and then followed Sam back out and downstairs, where she was indeed presented with that glass of wine. As well as a few hugs. Upon looking around, she finally took notice of the costumes everyone was wearing. Sam was a dog, Lafayette was just himself but with more glitter, Jesús was just a slightly more bloodied up nurse, and Arlene and Terry were zombies.

After all the various hellos and whatnots, Alice took perhaps the largest gulp from her glass that was possible.

"So. Who brought music?" she asked.

"I'm the only one who could do such a thing..." Lafayette winked at her and went to go sort it out.

"The neighbours are going to kill us, Maria."

* * *

By about eleven o'clock, everyone seemed to be well and truly drunk, except for perhaps the few that were able to hold their liquor a little better than the others – Alice included. Apparently she also had an uncanny ability to dance to Shakira's _Hips Don't Lie_ with a very full glass of alcohol. It was during that song that someone else came to the door, and it was Lafayette who went to answer it.

"Oh shit. No. Get outta here, bitch."

"Who is it?" Alice came near enough skipping up to the door. Upon seeing Pam, she started grinning. "Oh, Lafayette, Pam's cool. She's my babe."

"Is the little butterfly drunk?" Pam asked, smirking.

"Yep!" Alice chirped.

"Hang on, yous said yous were involved with a vampire... was that vampire Eric Northman?" Lafayette turned to Alice, not exactly happy about that. She nodded. "Fuck. I'm gonna get some more drinky drink, and you two can just... yeah."

He sauntered off, leaving the two women at the door. Pam looked at Alice very expectantly.

"Oh yeah! Come on in, Miss Swynford de Beaufort."

"Thank you." Pam stepped over the threshold and surveyed the interior for a moment. "Charming. Cosy. Cute. Just like you."

"You're here for a reason, Pam. So out with it."

Pam glanced over into the living room, where Lafayette and Sam were watching intently.

"Perhaps somewhere more private."

"Let's go to my room."

Alice beckoned Pam to follow her and soon enough they were up in the larger of the two bedrooms. The human hopped quite happily onto the bed, still with her full glass in hand, and began swigging on it occasionally, watching Pam once again look at her surroundings. She knew when Pam got to looking at the wardrobe because a perfect eyebrow was raised.

"Nice bra," she said. Alice glanced over at the aforementioned piece of clothing hanging from the door handle of the wardrobe.

"Yeah, I never seem to get out of the habit of putting them there..." She patted the space next to her, and Pam sat down, crossing one leg over the other. "So?"

"Do you want me to be gentle or just be straight with it?"

"Whatever you feel is best."

"Have you not noticed something?"

"What?"

"Sookie Stackhouse, your supposed friend, is not even present at this little shindig that was clearly meant to make you somewhat less miserable than you actually are. By the way, you look positively _adorable_ in that get up."

"Ah. Yeah. That is a bit odd, isn't it?"

"She's gone missing."

"Oh."

"Yeah. _Oh._"

"I wouldn't know anywhere where she could go. I know her, but I don't know her that well."

"It's okay, butterfly, I wasn't going to ask you anyway," Pam sighed. "She's a faery. Like an actual, fucking faery."

"And that means...?"

"Her mind reading thing for one, and another thing her day walking blood."

"I did wonder where that even came from..."

"So did I, until it was explained to me."

"You can say his name, you know," Alice said. "Like, I'm drunk enough not to get too upset over it. Besides the way you said that this was 'clearly meant to make me less miserable' is accurate. I'm drunk and yeah, I'm dancing a lot, but I'm not quite okay. I mean, I was pretty excited and upset about this whole thing earlier, but I'm only doing marginally better. Well – maybe better than marginally, because last time I was drunk I was bit of a sad mess."

"You babble too much when you're drunk." Pam's face was just set straight.

"Sorry. Can't help it." Alice rose her glass before downing the rest of her drink and placing the glass on the bedside table. "It's good to see you, Pam."

"Likewise. I have to deal with my moody maker most of the time, so coming to tell you all this is definitely a nice scene change. I saw your wonderful hip movements through the window." Pam winked at her.

"Don't tell Eric that it was to Shakira, however... in fact... just don't mentioned it at all."

"Speaking of the devil himself, what the _fuck_ happened to you this morning?"

"Why?"

"He freaked. I thought he was gonna fucking fly out of the window just to get to you in broad daylight."

"Oh! Oh – oh god, um, well, I had a panic attack in the shower."

"And yet you're still having a party here?"

"For a start, it was my new friend's idea, and secondly, I'm not known for making _good_ decisions."

"I see... who's your friend?"

"A lovely lady called Maria except she's not so lovely at the moment because I pissed her off. She's like me, except French."

Something seemed to spark in Pam's eyes.

"Well, I do like the French vagina."

Alice grimaced and then pouted.

"Didn't need to know that."

"Sorry, butterfly. Anyway, I best be off. If Lafayette sees me again he's gonna freak and I don't have time for that, so I think I'll just hop out the window," Pam smiled at Alice as she rose from the bed and went over to the window, opening it and then pausing for a moment. "He misses you." Then Pam was gone in an instant.

Alice went to close the window before heading back downstairs, only to find Maria and Alcide pretty much making out in a corner and Terry and Arlene lazing about on the sofa. Everything seemed to have come to a lull, so Alice did a dramatic little twirl over to the stereo and turned it off, before twirling over to her DVD cupboard.

"So. Anyone up for _A Nightmare on Elm Street_?"

* * *

**So that was a fairly long chapter. I thought that a light hearted one would have been nice. Besides, drunk Alice is great when she's not being a SAD drunk Alice. Now Alice is in the loop about things and she'll end up telling Maria. Next chapter, Alice is feeling a little bit better (the Halloween thing definitely lifted her spirits more than she thought) and there's more explanations.**

**I would have totally written in Pam watching the scary movies with them, but it got out of hand. It was just going to Alice and Maria having a quiet drink THEN Pam shows up, but no... that didn't quite happen. Maybe another time ;)**

**Also I feel like writing these is gonna be a bit bittersweet now, because True Blood's ended! Well, it's ended in America... not quite in the UK yet. Still got 2 more episodes to go! Gonna miss watching the Viking on Monday nights in the summer/autumn...**

**Comment?**

**-OL**


	5. Bets

"In all honesty, my head is still sort of feeling last week," Alice said as she sipped on her cup of tea at the kitchen table one morning.

"I'm never going to forget you dancing to Shakira. Your hip action was enviable, I have to say," Maria replied after she was done munching on her slice of toast.

"Likewise, I don't think I'll easily forget you and Alcide making out on the floor." Alice shuddered. "You're not animals. I was worried you were going to have sex right there and then!"

"Technically, Alcide is a-"

"Do not go there," Alice said in an exasperated manor.

"Sorry," Maria replied in a sheepish manor. "He's absolutely wonderful. He's not got a bad bone in him."

Alice glanced at Maria and raised an eyebrow. Yes, it seemed like the French woman was totally smitten with Alcide, and Alice didn't blame her for it. Maria deserved a good bit of romance.

"I can tell. I also approve of your choice in men."

"Should I really be taking advice from you?" Maria meant it as a joke, but it gave Alice a bit of a punch in the gut, reminding her about who her choice had been. It was lucky Maria noticed how Alice seemed to shrink in her seat a little bit, and immediately she winced. "Sorry. No. That wasn't good."

"You've really got to stop apologising. You're beginning to sound like you come from England."

"Do they really apologise that much over there?" She tilted her head to the side.

"You'd be surprised at what we'd do to be deemed a more polite country than Canada," Alice chuckled and stood, going over to the sink to place her now empty mug in it. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Did you call Pam?"

"Yes I did. And now my paycheck stands at seventy five thousand dollars a year, thank goodness for that… that's probably about just over what I earnt back in England." Alice turned back to Maria, a thoughtful look on her face.

"What did you do?"

"I was a part time translator that became full time after I left university and then obviously I quit that before I moved here."

"What language?"

"Spanish. I was one of three white girls in the course," she sighed. "Just goes to show how well and truly cultured England actually is."

"Huh…" Maria leaned back in her chair, folding her arms as she did so. "I wouldn't have pinned you down for the languages type. Maybe art or photography, but not languages."

"I like to take photos, but that's more of a hobby. Although I haven't had a proper chance to do any of that yet over here." Alice shrugged. "It's not like they were the best photos in the world, but it made me happy just to do it. Is there anything that you used to do that made you happy?"

"Painting, actually. That was why I sort of pinned you down as that type, I guess."

Alice gave her a questionable look.

"Don't give me that whole 'I could see the artist in you' bullshit."

Maria held up her hands in defeat.

"I won't, I won't, I swear!"

"Good. So. What are we doing today, then? Getting back to the original point?"

"I was thinking I could definitely start to help you get to grips with everything," Maria said as she went and placed her plate in the sink too. "I reckon by the end of today you can be one hundred percent an expert in regards to the visions."

"Seriously?" Alice grimaced. "That will certainly be a feat if you manage to help me do that."

"I have my ways."

"Like what?"

"For a start-" Maria grabbed Alice's hand and she was suddenly thrown into watching as Maria and Alcide fought against vampires, along with Sookie and Bill. The more she let herself focus on it, the more she took in about how diseased the bad vampires looked, and then Alcide shifting out of wolf form. Then she seemed to see something else, completely unrelated - Eric Northman carrying her limp body in his arms. Then she ended up snapping out of it, having managed to let go of Maria's hand.

The other woman was staring at her with a bemused expression.

"Well… I've never done that before."

Alice was trying to shake the feeling that there was something most definitely wrong about what she just witnessed.

"Why, what happened with you?"

"I saw your future too. I even saw what you saw from me, if that makes sense. Considering I wasn't thinking about trying to block you… that must have been why. Are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost."

That seemed like an appropriate way to put it.

"I think I did. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. I saw what you saw of about me as well."

"Shit."

"Great so now I have to figure out when I'm going to die, basically."

"What if you don't die?"

"Er…?" Alice looked at her oddly.

"Remember what I told you? About how I can't die? If we can get you to that point before then, you should be fine."

Alice began to consider that notion as she moved out of the kitchen and into the living room, rather in the need for a comfy sofa just about then. So she sank down into the comfy sofa, and sighed deeply, wishing that she didn't have to learn all of this and that it would just come naturally to her.

Maria joined her a few seconds later, and waited until Alice started speaking.

"I really need to be able to sort out the blocking thing and then I should be good on that front."

"You can do the detachment of the emotions thing?"

"That was the first thing I was good at. Then came the extremely fun game of making sure I didn't pass out before making sure I could do it without contact," she said sarcastically.

"Huh. That was the thing I found hardest, in all honesty," Maria said as she sank down properly into the sofa. The pair of them were both staring straight ahead at the television, which was switched off at the current time. In that silence, all that could be heard was the ticking clock. They almost looked dazed. For all intents and purposes, they probably were.

"So… what do you do when you need to block?" Alice asked her after quite sometime.

"All I think about is how much I do not want to see anything - honestly, it really does work and it's the simplest thing in the universe."

"Kind of like Sookie and her mind reading."

"Yeah, I guess. Speaking of, where has she been?"

"She's gone missing."

"Shit."

"Yep. Pam told me. Oh, did you know she's actually part Faery, or something? That explains the mind reading and all the rest of it."

"Rest of what?"

"Her blood lets vampires walk in daylight for like, ten minutes tops."

"Interesting. No wonder everyone's so interested in her."

"The question is: why are people so interested in us?"

"We're Sentients," Maria began to explain, "our power is to literally feel and see, in any sort of meaning that word has. Why on earth do you think you're such a compassionate person? I mean, you can get naturally very compassionate people, but you're entirely on another level. It's why you managed to see the good in Eric and Pam before seeing the bad. Anyway, vampires would be interested in that because they're so impulsive. They make impulsive decisions without really thinking of the repercussions and that's why we come in handy. We're able to stop them from being so rash. We can tell them if their future is gonna be a bad one if they do something stupid. You'd be surprised at how many vampires over the course of history have either become allies with Sentients, or taken captive of them to use for their own personal gain. Although even then, it's not really that many. We're a bit… shy, to say the least."

"Okay…" Alice nodded, trying to digest all that information. It definitely explained some things - it explained why she had grown up such a timid person, despite having three siblings and surrounding herself with the most outgoing people in the world. Was it just simply in her nature to be like that? Just because of what she was and what she could do? Maybe that was why she'd been so close to her grandmother on her father's side - because she had the exact same power. They'd been more alike than anything, and that's why it still hurt Alice so deeply that she had died. "But what about the other thing? The one where you can sort of just… know who might be behind you?"

They both finally looked at each other.

"You've experienced that?"

"Only really briefly, and apparently I wasn't meant to."

"Ah. I see. Well… okay. Imagine you're in a pitch black room. You can't see anything, can you?"

"Nope."

"Well that's where the other weird talent comes in. We'd be able to see in the dark, but that's mainly down to the fact we'd probably be scared."

"So it only works if you're scared and in the dark?"

"No, no, not quite. I mean, in the dark you'd be able to see people and feel their presence. If it were light, then you'd just be feeling their presence. Two warnings though: one, your eyes will begin to look weird and it'll freak other people out. Number two, when you're not so accustomed to doing it for long periods of time… it will just cut out and you'll go temporarily blind. No feeling. No seeing."

That prospect made Alice's stomach churn a little. This wasn't exactly the best after breakfast topic of conversation.

"How long does that happen for?"

"Longest for me was ten minutes. It's not fun, but it is over quite quickly. Just make sure you have somebody with you."

"How did you know you were ready to… well, move on and work on that?"

"I was just getting to that - you'll go blind for about a day."

"Are you serious?!" Alice burst out, extremely worried about that fact. "A day. A whole fucking day of not being able to see?!"

"I will make sure I'm here when that happens, okay? Going it alone is not recommended."

"...I'm guessing you did…"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry to hear that." She genuinely was. Not being able to see for a whole day? That was a nightmare come to life. "So… the blocking thing only works with contact, right?"

"Yep," Maria nodded, quite glad to have moved back to one of their previous subjects. "It's easy, in all honesty. It should be one of the easiest things that you can do."

"I'm gonna bet against that."

Maria raised an eyebrow, immediately interested in that challenge.

"Oh yeah? How much?"

"I'd said about thirty dollars you can't get me to do that in a week." Alice held out her hand and waited for Maria to take the bet - and she willingly took the other woman's outstretched hand.

* * *

**Short and filler-y, but it was necessary!**

**Also, if you want to have a good idea of what Alice might actually look like, google image Rachel Hurd Wood (when she had long, ginger/red hair) and for Maria, google image Astrid Berges Frisbey. I've been having a bit of fun doing face-casting as of late, in between school work and the rest of it (which is explains why this chapter itself was so late).**

**Hopefully things will pick up the pace a little bit. I have also discovered I'm incapable of keeping Eric and Alice apart for more than like... six chapters writing wise, but timeline wise it comes up to about two months, give or take. I have some very extensive plans for these two, which does take it through to season 7... potentially a mistake on my part, but it could work.**

**Anyway, comment as per usual? :)**

**-OL**


	6. Budapest

_My many artefacts__  
__The list goes on__  
__If you just say the words__  
__I – I'll up and run_

_To you__  
__Ooh, you__  
__Ooh, I'd leave it all_

_Ooh, to you__  
__Ooh, you__  
__Ooh, I'd leave it all_

_Give me one good reason__  
__Why I should never make a change__  
__Baby if you hold me__  
__Then all of this will go away_

–Budapest, George Ezra

* * *

It was safe to say that Alice lost that bet with Maria. In fact, considering how quickly she picked up on it with her friend as her proper teacher, she gave the other woman double the amount of money they had originally bet on. Naturally, that prospect pleased Maria greatly and was more than happy to take the doubled amount.

Time seemed to pass more quickly from that moment onwards. Even though Louisiana was usually a very hot state, there was a noticeable drop in temperature as November rolled in to at least try and properly start the winter season. It rained more often, that was for sure, something of which pleased Alice to no end – being from England, rain was a common occurrence there, but she noticed it had been less so here. It was nice just to sit and listen to it or watch it pound or patter against the windows while drinking tea.

It was nothing short of a miracle, but she'd managed to forget about Eric for a little while. Even though visits from Pam were quite regular, the blonde Viking vampire was never a topic of conversation between the two of them.

It had even once extended to Pam actually staying a large majority of the night to watch scary movies with Alice and Maria (despite Halloween being long over), although the vampire was clearly bored by the horror genre and decided to paint her nails instead. The end result was Maria eventually falling asleep, Alice pulling an all nighter due to terror, and Pam's nails being a gloriously dark red colour.

Needless to say, that wasn't the only eventful thing that happened.

Alcide came over regularly and due to him and Maria getting a little bit hands on with each other, Alice decided to take a drive to Bon Temps in search of some company and hopefully forget about the inappropriate sounds coming from the next room.

Unfortunately for her, Sam had been off somewhere – anger management, according to Lafayette. That struck Alice as odd because she'd never seen him get overly irate with anybody. Then again, she did miss out on quite a lot in Bon Temps in an attempt to lead a more quiet life in Shreveport, ironically enough. So she'd ended up drinking with Lafayette and Jesús, and apparently she had also met Sam's brother – another bit of a shock. Not that she remembered it that well anyway. Nor did she particularly want to.

Lafayette had said she hadn't said anything bad, but Alice would just rather not know in the long run. Things said while drunk were always bound to be embarrassing in the least.

The house felt more empty, now, as Maria was out with Alcide quite a lot of the time. They'd both tried and failed to set Alice up with someone but she wasn't interested. By the time November was ending, they'd stopped even trying, much to the pleasure of the more introverted and clearly preoccupied woman.

All the same, she attempted to keep the house filled, despite her introverted nature. She knew that while it did her good to be alone, that it also did her a wonder to talk to people face to face. Lafayette and Jesús were her regular guests. They always made her smile, and she felt comfortable talking to them about her strange ability. Which was soon to be abilities, but she was just waiting for it to happen. It scared her. A lot. And those two – when Maria wasn't there – were always able to help her remain more calm about it.

"I mean... Maria said she'd be here when it happens, but she's hardly _ever_ here," Alice remarked to them one evening. She was sitting cross-legged on the living room floor opposite Jesús, while Lafayette sat on the sofa behind her, plaiting her hair. She didn't even know why he was doing it.

"Just ask her to be here a little more often," Lafayette said.

"And deprive her of sex with her boyfriend? Seriously, I'm needy – we all know that – but not that needy."

"Then don't be complaining about it." He smirked and Alice just had a feeling that he was doing that exactly.

"She does have a right to complain. If Alice was pretty much promised something, then surely the other person should take it upon _themselves_ to stick to it," Jesús pointed out and Alice grinned. Lafayette rolled his eyes as he tied the end of Alice's hair with the band he had.

"Trust you to take sides with Ali-cat," he then said.

Shuffling across the floor so that she could see the both of them equally, Alice raised an eyebrow.

"Ali-cat?"

"You sleep a lot and don't talk to people all that much. And when yous super drunk, you steal food from people," he explained. Jesús was stifling a laugh and Alice merely looked an odd mixture of impressed and slightly unamused.

"I see. Is being like a cat a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Most likely a good thing, in this case," Jesús said. "Because Lafayette does in fact like you as a person and a friend, as I do too."

"Well that's good to know..." Alice murmured, raising an eyebrow and standing up. "Anyone want anything to drink? We've been sitting on the floor for the past ninety minutes or so and I never realised I actually wanted a drink until now. And _nothing_ alcoholic, this time." She looked pointedly at Lafayette.

"Then nothing for me," he replied.

"Me neither," added Jesús.

Shaking her head but chuckling all the same, Alice made her way through to the kitchen in order to get herself some water. She pulled a glass from the cupboard and went to put it on the counter top, only managing to miss and hear it smash on the floor. It was almost like a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment, only that she'd seemed to have had her eyes shut for longer than a blink.

"You okay?" Jesús came running into the room. "Don't move, you'll get glass in your feet..."

Alice looked down, frowning, and realised she couldn't see anything. She hadn't turned on the light but it wasn't dark – the light from the living room had flooded through enough for her to see. That was when it occurred to her what was going on as she heard Jesús shuffling around on the floor in an effort to remove as much of the broken glass as he could so that Alice could have a clear space to walk.

"Jesús..." she was surprised at how calm her voice was. "I – I can't see."

The clinking and shuffling stopped. Suddenly, Alice became aware that he was right in front of her face – his breath was close enough to feel slightly warm on her skin.

"Okay. Your eyes have gone a bit... odd. Pretty much clouded over like you have cataracts..." He took hold of her hand. "I'm going to lead you out of the kitchen, but you're going to have to take a huge step over the pile of glass."

Alice nodded, feeling slightly more terrified now, but did exactly as Jesús said, and just about missed the glass as she stepped over it.

"Where's Maria?" he asked her as he then slowly led her back into the living room, where Lafayette was on full alert now.

"Out with Alcide. It's late, they're probably not going to be available..."

"Okay... okay... we'll think of something." He took her over to the sofa and gently pushed her so that she could sit down on it. Jesús then let go of her hand and grabbe hold of Lafayette and dragged him out of the room.

"What?"

"There's only two other people who would know how to deal with this, isn't there?" Jesús asked him quietly. Lafayette sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"We is not going to Eric Northman," he whispered.

"We may have to."

"How's she gonna feel about that?" The pair of them looked back through the door at Alice, who was experimentally touching the sofa, as if she were trying to figure out how large it really was considering the fact she couldn't see it.

"I don't know. Maybe we don't tell her. Maybe we just tell her we're going to see Pam."

"That could work, but... he'll get all up in it."

"Then we keep him away from her, simple as that."

"I don't know 'bout keeping him away from her, but keep him away from me, darling..." Lafayette remarked.

"Guys... guys... where are you?" the woman in question called from her spot.

"Just out in the hall," Lafayette called back, before lowering his voice again. "We should _not_ being doing this."

"We might have to. They're gonna be better at dealing with this than us. Can that convince you enough?"

Lafayette stayed silent as he considered what Jesús was saying, and then finally agreed to it.

"Just follow my lead," said Jesús as he walked back into the living room. "Alice? Lafayette is going to get your shoes and coat and we're going to see Pam. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, yeah..." she seemed a bit confused – which was fair enough.

About ten minutes later, after helping Alice into her shoes and coat and trying to find the keys to her house, Jesús and Lafayette were somewhat unwillingly taking her to Fangtasia. They pulled up outside the nightclub, and Jesús asked for Alice's phone (which she managed to find by herself, while patting about her pockets a little). He sent a text to Pam, who was by their car within thirty seconds of him sending it.

Jesús rolled down the window after she tapped on it.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Pam, I've gone blind," Alice began to explain. "It's to do with... well, me being me. It lasts for a day, according to Maria."

"And what am I supposed to do about it? Ain't you two looking after her?"

"We figured you would be better at it." Jesús gave her a very obvious look, and she rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Fine. But I ain't doing this for you. Come on, butterfly." Pam opened the back door of the car and helped Alice out and taking her towards the back entrance of Fangtasia – which only she and Eric used. "You owe me one."

"I realise that, don't worry," Alice paused. "Although please don't try anything with me."

"I won't," Pam lied. She couldn't tell Alice that Eric was there. But she was wondering what Alice really meant when she said about trying anything with her. "Also you're very lucky you caught me on a quiet night." She opened the door and took Alice inside, kicking it closed with her heel afterwards.

"I'm glad to hear that. You still sound grumpy – more so than usual, that is."

"It just would have been nice to have been expecting you, is all."

"Is Eric here?"

"Nope." Pam thought she had said that a little too quickly as they stepped into the aforementioned vampire's office, whose gaze immediately snapped up to look at Alice. The blonde female gave Eric a warning glance, and he rested back in his chair again, still eyeing up the red head, tense. He stared as Pam took her to the leather sofa and sat her down. "Alice, I don't know why they brought you to me, thinking that it would be a good idea, but I'm not gonna leave you alone, 'kay?" Her voice was almost sickeningly sweet, but it was Alice – it was genuinely sweet when it came to her.

Pam turned her attention to Eric. Very quietly, she went over to him.

"She can't see," she said barely above a breath.

"I noticed that when she didn't react," Eric told her dryly in an equally hushed voice. "Her new power is trying to settle in."

"That explains that better than she did."

"Pam? You – you still there?"

"I am, don't worry yourself silly... I was just..." A devilish smile decided to sit upon Pam's face as she thought of an excuse. "Talking to our new boy. He likes to go by Buddy. He's also a vampire, but he's as friendly as they get and has the most _adorable_ Dallas accent."

Eric looked like he could kill Pam.

"And when I'm not in here, I can tell you for sure that Buddy will be. He'll have to owe me though, but you don't mind, do you?"

"Of – of course not," said Eric, in the best accent he could. Alice managed to let out a light laugh.

"Sounds like he's adorable."

"Oh sweetie, you don't know the _half_ of it... I'll be right back. Gotta check up out front..." Pam winked at Eric and sauntered through the office door, closing it shut with a snap.

"What's your name?" he had to keep up the pretence for at least a day, now.

"Alice. Is your name really Buddy?"

Eric stood and slowly began to make his way round the desk so that he came face to face with Alice.

"No... but for the sake of the fact I like to be called that... we'll say that it actually is," he said gently. "What – what happened to your eyes? Are you okay?"

"It's a long story I really shouldn't tell you," Alice frowned, looking straight at him but not seeing him. Her green eyes were gone. All that was left of them was a pool of silvery grey, and the pupils were a shade lighter than that.

Eric couldn't help but smirk a little at that – she had definitely learned well. She didn't outright trust anybody she met now, which was a good sign considering the circumstances they were in right now.

"Fair enough." He slowly edged forward. "I hope you realise that Pam'll be up all day, trying to keep an eye on you."

"It wasn't my idea to be dropped off here. My friends, they – they don't really know what to do. Well, I have one who _does_, but she' not– she's not around tonight. She'll get me in the day, I know she will." Even Alice couldn't convince herself of her own argument, but she was counting on Jesús and Lafayette to do the right thing by her. "Come and sit next to me, you sound so far away."

Oh, and that was because he as so far away. There she was – there was Alice – right in front of Eric, and he was hiding behind a mask, simply because he couldn't and wouldn't betray her again. He may have been lying to her about he was right now, but it was for the best. Eric was patient – he had learned patience in the span of over a thousand years and he would wait until Alice approached him. He had worked out exactly what he needed to say to her. He had figured out his explanation. She just needed a little more time before she would willingly hear it.

He was waiting at the shore for her while she swam towards it.

"Sure."

His steps were deliberate as he came to sit down on her left hand side. Alice turned to face him, even though it wasn't necessary for her to do so – Eric couldn't even bring himself to look at her eyes. There was something he did notice about her, however.

"You're sad."

"Of course I am."

"You say that like it should be obvious – why?" Eric wondered if he actually knew the answer. Either way, a tear slipped down her cheek and that served as a clue. He did know the answer.

"I'm in love."

Eric gulped. She'd never actually said it to him or mentioned it to him, ever. That was because they'd never had the time to talk about it. It had all gone far too messy in such a short space of time yet she still thought that about him...

"And I'm scared," Alice then added.

"You can't see, so I'm not surprised there." He wanted to give her some sign of comfort, but Eric was afraid of touching her simply because he didn't want her to recognise him.

"I hate it. I hate not being able to see," Alice sniffled, more tears falling down her face despite her trying to wipe them away. "I'm so scared. I want – I want to hold him. I want him to tell me it's okay. As much as I hate to admit it, that's what I want now. I want to be encased by him and smell him and have him tell me it's okay, even though I know he hates it when I cry and just human crying in general. I – I miss him. I was just too stubborn to admit it to anyone I know. Except you... because you're a total stranger to me."

Eric had tensed up, with a lump in his throat and he thought for a second that his heart had started beating again. How long had it been since they had seen each other? Two months, maybe? He wondered how long she had felt like that, but it truly touched him and made him feel alive in a place he hadn't felt alive in for years.

"Sometimes... talking to strangers is the only way you can get things off your chest. Then you won't have a biased opinion." Keeping the accent was getting annoying.

"Do you have a non-biased opinion?"

"I don't know enough about the situation," he lied smoothly. Too many years of practice for that one...

"True." He could hear the smile in Alice's voice at that, but that seemed to fade quickly. "I'm terrified, absolutely terrified, but I'm still... calm about this? If you get what I mean? Usually I'd be half collapsed by now. Maybe time to myself has done me good."

"Maybe it has," Eric agreed.

"What's the time?" she asked randomly.

"Almost one in the morning," he replied after checking his watch.

"I'm tired."

"Then sleep. We'll still be here. Just err – lean to your right and you'll get your head on the arm rest. I'll move. I need to go talk to Pam," Eric said as he stood, making his way to the door.

"I can't tell if my eyes are closed."

He glanced back at her.

"They're closed. Yell if you need anything."

"I want Eric..." she murmured. He smiled sadly.

"I can't get you that." Those were his last words before he stormed from the room, intent on finding Pam. She was out front, just clearing off the last couple of people before they closed up.

Eric was rarely rough with Pam, but as of right now, he was absolutely fuming. He grabbed her by the arm, hard, and dragged her back towards his 'throne.'

"Why the _fuck_ did you agree to that, hmm?" he growled at her, leaning in very close to her face. Naturally, the false accent was gone. Pam yanked her arm back, giving him a stony look.

"Because you've got your head so far up your own ass you failed to go to her fucking house just now because she was _scared,_" she retorted. "I know you can still feel her, don't fucking deny it, Blondie. You never break your word and you did."

"Oh, so you did this as punishment?" Eric stepped back and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. You deserved it," Pam spat. "You deserved to see her in pain and I heard every single word she said to you in there. You deserved to see the pain you caused her and the pain she's in because of how fucking frightened she is about what's going on. I know we – as vampires – can move past our pain quickly because it's just a fleeting thing for us, but she's _human._ I know I'm not fond of humans, but I _am_ fond of Alice. Feel what she's feeling for once, Eric. I know you've sorted out what you're gonna _eventually_ say to her, but you've got to understand her first. She. Is. _Human._"

With those final words, Pam made her exit. Eric knew she was right. Just for once in his life, he had to stop for a moment.

So he went back to the office and sat in his chair, watching the sleeping human, just in case she needed anything.

He had the accent at the ready for when she did.

* * *

**I realise how late this chapter is, and I apologise. Year 13 got very crazy (it's the beginning of my last year of school before I go to university) and so a lot of my time was taken up with that.**

**I also realise how cruel I am with this chapter. Yep. Eric and Alice in the same room, but one of them doesn't know the other is there. It was kind of necessary, in a way, because Eric needed to be told some things, really. Just... not as him, I guess? Anyway, this little blindness stint concludes at the beginning of the next chapter, which should be up fairly soon because it's the school holidays! One week off. Yay!**

**I really recommend listening to George Ezra - I am absolutely in LOVE with his voice! And he's on 21. That's just 4 years older than me and his voice is just WOW.**

**Comment?**

**-OL.**


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